With the recent wildfires in Bastrop about the only thing salvageable was the leftover sheet metal. The lines have been long at the Bastrop Metal Recycling center west of town along Texas Highway 71. A worker passes in front of burned out vehicles brought into the center over the past two weeks.

People secure their loads as they que up for the wait to the recycling center.

Gorzycki Middle School football players stand on the sideline as dark, menacing clouds hang low during a game at Covington Middle School. The game was cancelled at halftime due to lightning. Photo by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Kenneth Koym of Austin chants with about a hundred other protesters outside the Chase Building in downtown Austin as they wait for Speaker of the House John Boehner to arrive for a fundraiser on Monday Sept. 26, 2011. The reception at the Headliners Club was co-chaired by several Texans in Congress, including Representatives John Carter, Michael McCaul and Lamar Smith. Photo by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

A huge cloud and the Austin skyline provided the backdrop for the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Sunday Sept. 18, 2011. Photo by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

With the massive wildfires and the Austin City City Limits Music Festival, it seems like I’ve faced constant deadlines for weeks. In my rush to meet those deadlines I overlooked a few photos during my editing. In an effort to tie up some loose ends, I’m publishing on this photoblog some photos that missed the deadline by several days or weeks. Better late than never.

A lawn decoraion stands among the ashes after a wildfire in Bastrop's Circle D Estates neighborhood on Tuesday Sept. 6, 2011. Photo by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

The Bastrop fire rages late in the afternoon on Tuesday Sept. 6, 2011. Photo by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

A view of the Austin skyline looking west from the Zilker Clubhouse on Monday Sept.12, 2011. Photo by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Lawrence Rose was just passing through Austin when the people he was staying with offered him a job painting a sign. He is known as “That Damn Artist” and his future travels have him departing Austin tomorrow for Denver, Salt Lake City and California. “I love Austin, although it’s a little hot. In fact I’m getting cooked like a chicken right now.” said Rose, who calls England home. He was painting the Treasure City Thrift store, a non-profit thrift store on E. 7th St. Monday afternoon, all by free hand and spray paint. The store is volunteer-run and collectively organized.

Austin firefighter Gavin Finlay fights a one-acre brush fire in Austin's Legend Oaks neighborhood on Sunday Sept. 25, 2011. The fire burned a deck in the back yard of a home on Clay Allison Pass. Although fire danger was high Sunday, only two fires threatened or slightly damaged structures, officials said. Photo by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Aaron Finbloom busks with his accordian on Sixth Street at the Pecan Street Festival on Sunday Sept. 25, 2011. Finbloom performed for tips improvisational one-minute songs about any subject. Photos by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Artist Doug Desjardins works at his booth at the Pecan Street Festival on Sunday Sept. 25, 2011. Desjardins said he is from the coast of Maine, and has been living a nomadic life criss-crossing the country selling his folk art and painting murals.

Aaron Dali Lujan, 4, of Pflugerville, gets some help with his lucha libre masks from his father Mario Lujan.

Flames from the Bastrop Complex Fire creep toward a house on Mauna Kea Drive in Bastrop on Sept. 5, 2011, the day after the massive wildfire started. Photos by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

The same home lies in ruins on Tuesday Sept. 21.

One of the dramatic scenes I witnessed on Sept. 5, the day after the massive Bastrop Complex Fire started, was four men desperately using shovels and a garden hose to try to stop the fire from destroying the home of a neighbor they had never met. “It’s the right thing to do,” said Chris Sievert, one of the men who risked his life fighting the fire. When we left the house that day it was still standing. I returned to Mauna Kea Drive yesterday and discovered that unfortunately the house did not survive the fire. It was one of about 1,600 homes destroyed.

Chuck Tomlin was among four men who used shovels and a garden hose to try to stop the fire from destroying the home on Sept. 5.

The 10th annual Austin City Limits Music Festival came to an end after thousands crowded the great lawn of Zilker Park for three fun-filled days of music and now the cleanup and dismantling of stages and props begins. Workers take down the main entrance to the park on Barton Springs Rd.

Texas Highway 71 east of Bastrop shows visible signs of the wild fire that ripped through the area over the Labor Day weekend. The Texas Forest Service has determined that the cause of the fire was electrical and it is now 95% contained.

Texas filmmaker Richard Linklater premiered his new film “Bernie” Sunday afternoon at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, with actor Jack Black making an appearance on the red carpet. Linklater, a part-time Bastrop resident, plans on donating 100 percent of the proceeds from the special screening to benefit several agencies in the wildfire-stricken area of Bastrop.

How hard is it to be a server at the Four Seasons Hotel ballroom. You have to creep aroound the room, being quite while serving hundreds a luncheon of chicken and veggies all the while trying not to interrupt Texas Senator Kirk Watson giving his speech about bringing a UT Medical School and teaching hospital to Austin. Senator Watson presented his outline and ten goals for the creation of a Medical School at a luncheon gathering for the Real Estate Council of Austin at the Four Seasons Hotel Tuesday afternoon.And Charles will be your server today.

Survivors of the wild fires that engulfed a neighborhood in Leander over the Labor Day weekend are still trying to pick up the pieces of homes totally lost. Resident Susan McGolrick, center, visits the site of what was once her home at 1004 Moonglow Drive with her sister Michelle Black, left, and daughter Crystal Ames, right. FEMA has set up inside the Leander Public Library for residents like McGolrick to get assistance this week.

Photos by Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman

Sep 20, 2011 | Uncategorized | Comments Off on A Slice of Life In And Around Austin

Emo's Main Room closed on Saturday after a show by Toronto punk band Death From Above 1979. I dropped in Monday night to see what what was left the storied Red River live music venue. The stage lights and sound system had been removed. Much of the artwork was gone too. Graffiti covered the wall behind the stage. "For Sale" was spray painted under the Emo's logo, and "Insert Hotel" was scrawled on the floor. The original, gritty Emo's Main Room, open since 1992, and home of a legendary 1994 SXSW showcase by Johnny Cash, is history. The new location for Emo's has opened on East Riverside Drive. Photos by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Sep 19, 2011 | Uncategorized | Comments Off on Lights out for Emo’s Main Room

Kanye West performs at the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Friday Sept. 16, 2011. Photos by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Mark Foster, lead singer of Foster the People, jumps into the crowd after his show.

Rob Dew and his six-year-old son Morgan Dew put their hands in the air for electronic music artist Pretty Lights.

Foster The People

As soon as the gates opened shortly after 11 a.m., these people sprinted to stake out their spot at the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

Theophilus London

Joshua Lucero of Portales, New Mexico, left, and his friend Tyler Anderson, of Radford, Virginia, found a clever way to avoid getting separated at the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Friday Sept.16, 2011. They carried larger-than-life cutouts of their faces.

The Bastrop State Park along Texas Highway 21 in Bastrop encompasses 6,500 acres and according to Park Superintendent Todd McClanahan it is 95% burned. All the historic Civilian Conservation Corp buildings were saved, some with little damage. The park will be closed through at least October as they assess the damage and remove hazardous trees. McClanahan surveys the damage to the Scenic Overlook CCC structure which was mostly saved minus a burned rooftop and some wooden beams. It is the highest point in the park.

The park may open sooner that the end of October, but a lot depends on the quickness with which the hazardous trees are removed. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is now concerned with soil erosion, but with the severe drought and now the wildfires, any moisture will be a welcomed sight.

Parks Superintendent Todd McClananhan lives on the property with his wife and two young sons. He had to evacuate the park and his family when the wildfires hot the area Sunday night. "It's hard for me becasue even though our home was saved, I feel like I lost my home." said McClanahan who was referring to the loblolly pine forest within the park.

In a parking lot across the street from the entrance to the State Park an impromptu donation dropoff center was started for residents affected by the fire. Life may never be the same for those residents that lost everything in the Bastrop County wildfires, but for sisters Tracey and Brandy McClintock, pictured here, they are trying to return things to normal, even without a home to live in. They lived on Cardinal Lane in the Circle D neighborhood that was hardest hit. "I'm just glad people can give what they don't need. We've been here 30 years, we're going to rebuild." said Brandy, as they sort through donated clothes, toys and books. The sisters and their families live with their parents in an extended family.

Firefighters suit up for a 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb at the Pleasant Valley Drill Tower in Austin on Sunday Sept.11, 2011. About 50 firefighters from several area fire departments participated in the event. Each firefighter climbed 108 flights of stairs - roughly the height of of the World Trade Center - to remember the 343 firefighters who died 10 years ago at the World Trade Center. Photos by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Bastrop firefighter Michelle Baker sat in a firetruck as her house collapsed. 'I had to watch my house burn,' she said. She and her husband Nate returned Thursday Sept. 8, 2011, to see what they could find. Photos by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Heart of the Pines firefighters, left to right, Capt. Jerry Tuttle, Assistant Chief Scott Sutcliffe, and Lt. Jeff Fox keep an eye on the fire from their station on Highway 71 between Bastrop and Smithville on Thursday Sept. 8, 2011. Many of the 24 firemen in the Heart of the Pines Volunteer Fire Department lost their homes, including Tuttle and Sutcliffe. Fox's home on Old Antioch Road was still standing, but it was being threatened, Fox said.

Heart of the Pines firefighter Jerry Tuttle looks at the destroyed home of his Assistant Chief Scott Sutcliffe on Long Trail in Bastrop on Thursday Sept. 8, 2011. Tuttle's home was also destroyed.

The landscape is torched on Cottletown Road in Bastrop on Thursday Sept. 8, 2011.

Capt. Alan Donaldson of the Bastrop Fire Department looks at his destroyed helmet where his house once stood in Bastrop's Circle D Estates neighborhood. 'I just sat their and counted my blessings,' said Donaldson who nearly died in the fire.

Heart of the Pines volunteer firefighter Lt. Patrick Beasley returned to his destroyed home on Cottletown Road in Bastrop to retrieve his guns on Thursday Sept. 8, 2011.

Bastrop firefighter Michelle Baker salvages her belongings at her destroyed home in Bastrop's Tahitian Village neighborhood.

A fire hydrant that belongs to Bastrop firefighter Michelle Baker stands among the rubble at her destroyed home. 'I won't leave the hydrant,' she said. 'It's mine.'

UT's A.J. White, Blake Gideon and Blaine Irby get ready to lead the Longhorns onto the field for the season-opening game against Rice at Royal-Memorial Stadium on Saturday Sept. 3, 2011. Texas won 34-9. Photo by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Some Bastrop residents got the go ahead to return to their neighborhoods to check on the status of their homes about midday Thursday and some found the destruction they expected. LaMinda Ainsworth, back, found the home she shares with her daughter and son-in-law, Robert and Amanda King, on Kona Drive in the Tahitian Village, a complete loss. She receives a hug from friend Carrie Detrixhe, facing, who was checking on her sister’s home down the street which survived the wild fires.

Jeff and Jane Worrell arrived at their home on Kona Drive in the Tahitian Village, and found it a complete loss. A fire crew from the Nacogdoches Fire Department, including firefighter Frankie Hamby, were on the scene to extinguish some hot spots and help search for family artifacts like her antique silverware.

A firefighter from Nacogdoches collects pieces of antique silverware for homeowner Jane Worrell.

Bastrop area residents play the waiting game as they gather at the Emergency Command Center in town to find any information on their homes and neighborhoods. Most of the evacuated residents have yet to return to their homes but information on devastated homes is being posted in front of the center. This couple is comforted by others as she finds out the dreaded information on her home. She had no comment as she was overcome with grief.

Most of the evacuated residents from Bastrop have yet to return to their homes and find solace in local churches and organization for food and housing. Richard Wilcox and his wife Judy find bedding and food at the Ascencion Catholic Church on Pine Street in downtown Bastrop. "We had been staying at a hotel but now might be sleeping in the back of our car, that's why we need some bedding." said Wilcox. The couple live along Loop 150 East and are awaiting word to get back in to their neighborhood.

A truck with the word "Pray" says it all for these residents.

Local children have drawn pictures thanking firefighters for their help and hanging them on the front doors of the Command Center.

This is the scene from the Bastrop State Park showing scorched pine trees and ash earth.